John McGreal thrilled with Colchester’s win at Leyton Orient

Posted Friday, December 27, 2019 by PA

Colchester manager John McGreal was pleased with the performance of his charges after they gained a deserved 3-1 victory against Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road.

The victory in League Two’s early Boxing Day fixture moved Colchester up to fourth before the other games had kicked off.

“I am delighted with the win,” McGreal said.

“Orient have been a little more determined of late but from minute one on a pitch which had a deluge of rain just before kick-off, I felt we controlled it and were the better side, fully deserving the victory.”

Goals from Theo Robinson and man-of-the-match Harry Pell had given the Essex side a comfortable advantage before Orient substitute Ruel Sotiriou reduced the deficit with four minutes remaining.

But Robinson made sure of the points with his second goal of the match on the stroke of full-time to extend Colchester’s unbeaten run to eight league matches.

“I’ve had a few good chats with Theo Robinson recently and knew with these important fixtures coming up he would be vital and he showed that today,” McGreal added.

“He is always working hard and even when the cross or delivery is not always to him, he makes something out of it and is a real handful for defenders and fully deserved his two goals.

“We got into some really good positions today and played some terrific stuff, we got bodies into the box and were a real threat throughout.

“They could have caused us problems when they scored as it livened things up but we didn’t panic and scored a great goal on the counter-attack and could have even scored before that moment.”

Orient interim manager Ross Embleton said: “We gave ourselves too much to do at times.

“We could have got back into the game given the chances that we created but ultimately we didn’t do enough of the basics and the things that we have done well in recent games.

“We need to do more of the League Two things which means being gritty and determined and we didn’t do that today. The margins between the two sides I didn’t think were that great if I am honest and when you concede sloppy, silly and naive goals then it will give you a massive hurdle to get anything out of the game.

“The conditions were difficult and I did wonder at half-time whether we would get through the game but at this stage of the season we are going to have to play on difficult surfaces and again that means the requirements of doing the hard parts of the game.

“Sometimes at home it feels like we need to take the bull by the horns but I do wonder whether we need to take more of our away form mindset into games in E10 to be more effective.”